A wide variety of medical devices have been developed for use in facilitating navigation and treatment throughout a patient's anatomy. For example, catheters are commonly used alone or in conjunction with other devices to facilitate navigation through and/or treatment within a patient's often tortuous anatomy, for example, through the vascular anatomy of a patient. It can be desirable to combine a number of performance features in such medical devices. For example, it can be desirable to have a relatively high level of pushability and torqueability at or near the proximal end of a device, while having flexibility at or near the distal end of the device to aid in navigation.
The prior art offers a number of different structures and assemblies for medical devices, and methods for making such structures, assemblies, and medical devices. Each of these different structures, assemblies and methods has certain advantages and disadvantages. However, there is an ongoing need to provide alternative structures and assemblies for medical devices, and methods for making such structures, assemblies, and medical devices, for example, to in aid in providing desirable performance features in such medical devices.